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Bastile Festival crowds
Photograph: Supplied | Bastile Festival crowds
Photograph: Supplied

The best things to do in Sydney this weekend

Hello weekend, we're ready for you

Avril Treasure
Edited by Avril Treasure
Editor, Time Out Sydney
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Looking for weekend fun? You've come to the right place. 

In France, Bastille Day is a day of revolution and feisty festivities. Get in the spirit with our guide to Sydney’s best French restaurants, plus check out Bastille Festival (July 16-19) in Circular Quay. Expect French street food favourites like raclette, crêpes, escargots and macarons – plus lots of cheese.

Colombo Social has just launched a Sri Lankan-inspired high tea with delicious bites and a feel-good mission. Available every Saturday and Sunday, the high tea gives the traditional format a Sri Lankan twist with lamb curry sausage rolls, fish cutlets, seeni sambol and Amma’s love cake, plus unlimited Dilmah tea. What’s more, every booking funds ten meals for children in rural Sri Lanka.

Bondi Festival is back until July 19 with 17 days of music, theatre, comedy, visual arts and immersive experiences, plus the return of crowd favourites like the ice rink, Bondi Vista Ferris Wheel and the colourful Bondi Beach Sea Wall. This year’s festival is extra special, marking a once-in-a-lifetime nod to Bondi’s postcode (2026) with its biggest program yet.

Get into the winter magic at Darling Harbour’s popular ice rink, located in the Palm Grove Forecourt outside IMAX Sydney. As well as daily skating sessions from 10am-9pm, this year’s event will feature new Friday night performances, with six ice skaters taking to the rink at 5.45pm and 6.45pm.

If the weather is average but you’re keen to get out of the house (and stay dry), check out our guide to fun things to do indoors. Plus, warm up with Sydney’s most delicious Sunday roasts (crispy pork belly for me), and work your way through the city’s best affordable eats.

The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes have landed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with Richard Lewer taking home the top honour for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara Elder Iluwanti Ken. Head to the gallery to check out the winning portrait in person, plus all the finalists and winners. The exhibition runs until August 16, with tickets from $30.

I'm keen to see Mackenzie – our reviewer said it's "a flamboyantly fresh adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most renowned works filled with laughter, farce and flair." Check out the best shows to see in Sydney this month here.

And if you want more boozy fun, you can work your way through Sydney's best bars here. Oh, and you can suss Sydney’s best restaurants.

Hope you have a fun weekend.

Weather not looking so hot? Check out our list of the best things to do indoors in Sydney.

Looking for weekday fun? These are the best things to do in Sydney this week.

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, straight to your inbox.

The best things to do this weekend

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

  • Things to do
  • Darling Harbour
The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
Photograph: Supplied | Kit Photography
Few things in life manage to bridge generational divides, and one of them is Animal Crossing. Whether you’re looking for activities these school holidays or feeling nostalgic for the hours spent catching fish on your Nintendo Switch, head to Darling Harbour from July 1 to August 23 to experience a dreamlike underwater world where your favourite virtual characters and the real marine world collide. Back by popular demand, the Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience returns with a fresh and even more immersive take, giving returning fans the perfect excuse to come back. Snap a pic with Isabelle, everyone's favourite secretary, or check out panels from Blathers about the aquarium’s real-world marine life. In between lessons, see if you can spot a washed-up Gulliver alongside giant cutouts of other island residents hiding around. You can also take part in a stamp rally inspired by the game. If you collect all the character stamps, you'll take home a postcard as a reward that’s worthy of a spot on the fridge.  Tickets start from $99 per family, with 30 per cent off until July 19. Plus, students save more than 50 per cent, with $24 tickets available weekdays anytime (outside school holidays) or every day after 3pm. The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life runs for a limited time from July 1 to August 23, 2026. To learn more and get tickets, visit the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium website.
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Harbourside Cinema by Pier One

  • Hotels
  • Dawes Point
Harbourside Cinema by Pier One
Harbourside Cinema by Pier One
Photograph: Nick De Lorenzo
Movie nights are fun. Movie nights with front-row seats overlooking Sydney Harbour? Now we're talking. Pier One Sydney Harbour is giving movies a decadent glow-up with Harbourside Cinema by Pier One – a private open-air cinema set on its Sunset Balcony Suite. Available until September 30, the experience transforms the suite's waterfront terrace into your own luxe outdoor cinema, complete with a cosy love seat, blankets and a projector screen framed by our spectacular harbour. You pick the movie – whether it’s a rom-com or an action-packed adventure – then settle in as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park provide a stunning backdrop. Getting to the all-important movie snacks: a dedicated Ultimate Movie Night trolley rolls up to your suite loaded with buttery popcorn and DIY Yo-Chi frozen yoghurt, complete with toppings. Feeling hungrier? Order everything from loaded fries and Wagyu cheeseburgers to baked brie and artisan cheeseboards from the Pier Bar food and drink menu which is sent straight to your room. Harbourside Cinema by Pier One costs $150 per experience on top of the nightly suite rate, so this is definitely a treat-yourself experience. Additional guests are $50 per person, with a maximum capacity of eight guests per booking. Once you book the Harbourside Cinema package, their team will be in touch to organise any additional guests, movie night trolley timings, plus food and drink pre-orders. All you need to do is pick the movie. Find out more here.  Stay in...
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Winterfest

  • Things to do
  • Fairs and festivals
  • Haymarket
Winterfest
Winterfest
Photograph: Supplied | Hay St
’Tis (almost) the season: Christmas may still be six months away, but you won’t have to wait that long for a festive-style fix. A new winter festival is landing at Hay St, bringing an ice-skating rink, winter cocktails and immersive events, from July 1 to August 2. The month-long celebration will see Hay St embrace the season with a special Winterfest menu as the market is decked out with twinkling lights, falling snow in a dedicated laneway, and a pop-up photo booth, where you can snap a souvenir pic to take home. Whether you’re a newbie or a pro, lace up for a 45-minute skate sesh on the synthetic ice rink. Tickets are $10 and include skates as well as a 25 per cent off voucher for food from any stall of your choice.  If you’re less of a skater and more of a spectator – especially when it comes to the hockey-player romance craze currently taking over our screens – Hay St is hosting a one-off American-themed Off Campus Party on Thursday, July 9. Take a study break and step into a real-life campus movie, with cheerleaders, hockey players and campus officers roaming the halls. Entry is $5, with a DJ spinning party tracks all night for anyone keen to hit the dance floor. As if you needed another reason to visit, the market is also hosting the most wholesome date-night activity, with two cosy nights of candlelit jazz performances on July 25 and August 1 from 6-9pm. Winterfest at Hay St runs every Wednesday to Sunday from July 1 to August 2, with free entry. Find out more here.
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The Garden

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Marrickville
The Garden
The Garden
Photograph: Supplied
Beautiful things are (nearly) blooming in Marrickville. Following the delightfully offbeat success of The Grocery Store – an exhibition of wonderfully inedible everyday goods – Voluptuary Ceramics is transforming its warehouse yet again, this time into an enchanting, otherworldly garden. Running from July 25 to August 30, The Garden is an immersive exhibition featuring garden-inspired ceramics, sculptures, paintings, textiles and tactile objects by more than 50 Australian artists, designers and makers. Each artist has been busy as a proverbial bee in their own studio, cultivating creations of garden-themed artwork and now they'll come together to display and sell their wares. Think hand-felted wool creations of mushrooms and moss; detailed paintings of ferns, fungi and flowers; metal sculptures of butterflies and bees; and whimsical ceramic blooms. From bold and bright to intricate and delicate, The Garden invites you to wander and wonder at nature’s bounty – and perhaps take home a little piece of this wonderfully imagined world. The Garden is on at Voluptuary World, Marrickville from July 25 to August 30. Find out more via their Instagram page.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED: The best markets in Sydney for farm-fresh produce or arts and crafts 25 fun (and delicious) things to do in Sydney for under $25  Have you had a bite at Eat Ozzo Marrickville yet?
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Treasures of the Viking Age – The Galloway Hoard

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Darling Harbour
Treasures of the Viking Age – The Galloway Hoard
Treasures of the Viking Age – The Galloway Hoard
Photograph: Supplied | National Museums Scotland
It’s easy to think that tales of raucous Vikings are the stuff of fiction: horned helmets, fierce warriors and wooden boats that were as intricately carved as they were fearsome on a misty horizon. This year, the Australian National Maritime Museum is displaying an awe-inspiring exhibition with some very real artefacts that show just how pivotal the Viking Age was in forming what we know as modern-day Scotland, England and Ireland.  The Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard exhibition uncovers items that were buried around AD 900. Due to all the looting synonymous with the Viking Age, it was really common for treasure troves of goods to be buried and forgotten about, only to be discovered centuries later.  In 2014, metal detectorists uncovered The Galloway Hoard with five kilograms of precious metals, rare organic materials like silk, heirlooms and more. Sydney's own Australian National Maritime Museum is displaying the collection, on loan from National Museums Scotland, until October. Tickets start from $15 for children, $25 for adults and free for members. You can catch the exhibition open daily from 10am-4pm now, until October 11. Book your tickets here.
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Bankstown Bites

  • Things to do
  • Food and drink
  • Bankstown
Bankstown Bites
Bankstown Bites
Photograph: Supplied
Exhausted Sydney’s best restaurants and looking for your next foodie fix? One of Sydney's fave multicultural food festivals is turning 21 this month – and it's celebrating with its biggest program yet. Bankstown Bites will land back in Western Sydney from July 24-25, transforming Griffith Park into a tasty-as two-day global street food feast, with a packed program of cultural performances, live entertainment and cooking demos. If you've never hit this foodie haven before, consider this your sign: the beloved annual festival is one of the tastiest ways to eat your way around the world without leaving Sydney. The festivities will kick off on Friday, July 24 (5pm-9pm), with Griffith Park turning into a festive winter night market complete with sizzling street food, live music and roaring fire pits to keep you cosy. Then on Saturday, July 25 (noon-6pm), the festival will ramp things up with more than 60 food stalls, fresh produce markets, kids' workshops, cultural performances and guided Bites Food Tours, which showcase some of Bankstown's most legendary eateries. This year's food line-up includes everything from La Booza, the cult Lebanese gelato makers who famously operate out of a Punchbowl petrol station, to indulgent steak rice bowls from Wagyu Blacks and wildly customisable sweet treats from Popsok Popcorn. Home cooks can also pick up a few tricks from TV favourite Courtney Roulston (host of Farm to Fork and MasterChef Australia All-Stars contestant), who'll be serving...
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The Addams Family

  • Musicals
  • Elizabeth Bay
The Addams Family
The Addams Family
Photograph: James Reiser
"They're creepy and they're kooky / Mysterious and spooky / They're altogether ooky / The Addams Family."  If you love that jingle and the famously freaky family associated with it, you'll be thrilled to know that The Addams Family is haunting Hayes Theatre, Potts Point until August 9. Cue dark humour and death stares in this in this Gothic musical comedy where love, family and chaos collide.  Brought to life by the acclaimed team behind The Producers, this new production is directed by Julia Robertson (The Producers, Metropolis) and choreographed by Shannon Burns (Gutenberg! The Musical, The Producers). Based on the beloved characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the musical follows Wednesday Addams as she falls for a “normal” boy – forcing the wonderfully weird Addams clan to confront love, acceptance and the awkward business of meeting the in-laws. Leading the cast is Erika Heynatz as Morticia Addams (Legally Blonde, Menopause the Musical), bringing plenty of gothic glamour to the iconic matriarch. Marcus Rivera steps into the role of devoted husband Gomez Addams (Miss Saigon, City of Angels), while Jenny Guigayoma plays Wednesday Addams (Nine, Peter Pan) and Georgia Oom takes on the mischievous Pugsley (Werkaholics, Footloose). Evan Lever brings his peculiar charm to Uncle Fester (The Normal Heart, Muriel’s Wedding), Deborah Galanos embraces the chaos as Grandmama and Elliot Aitken makes his professional debut as the deadpan Lurch. The Addams Family delivers...
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Afterglow

  • Surry Hills
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Afterglow
Afterglow
Photograph: Lucy Parakhina
What do you think of when you hear "barbershop quartet"? I doubt many would answer "a trans-led, independent Australian barbershop quartet musical"... but that's exactly what Sheanna Parker Russon (No Love Songs for Lady Basses) and Lillian M. Hearne (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) have conjured up for Griffin Theatre's Lookout Program, now playing at Belvoir's Downstairs Theatre. What is the premise of Afterglow? Produced by the femme-focused storytelling of Purpletape Productions – Lily Hayman (Co-Director) and Tyler Fitzpatrick (Lighting Designer) – Afterglow takes place in the male-dominated world of competitive barbershop championships.  It’s 2012 and the Barbershop Singing National Championships have ended with the yearly “afterglow” now in full swing. Think the socio-political allure of the Freemasons but with more four-part a cappella harmonies. At this particular afterglow, where dickie-bows are loosened and the whisky (straight) flows, Michael (Cassie Hamilton) meets Tom (Nic Prior). Their quietly bubbling romance ensues across a six-year period as Michael's barbershop purism clashes with Tom's more modern outlook on gender politics within a traditional quartet. Behind these closed doors, the metaphor of the barbershop gives way to much more potent truths – that of gender performativity and policing. Who are the cast and crew of Afterglow? Cassie Hamilton’s Michael is sufficiently loveable as a purist for the art of barbershop. Vocally strong and...
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Nocturne at Pier Pavilion

  • Music
  • Barangaroo
Nocturne at Pier Pavilion
Nocturne at Pier Pavilion
Photograph: Supplied | Barangaroo
Looking for a winter night out that won’t torch your bank account? We’ve got just the thing. Nocturne is returning to Barangaroo this July, bringing a month of free live music to the harbour’s striking Pier Pavilion. Kicking off on Friday, July 3 and running every Friday and Saturday night until July 25, this after-dark concert series transforms the waterfront venue into an intimate listening space, complete with ambient lighting, theatre-style seating and views across the water.RELATED READ: 26 cool things to do in Sydney this winterCurated by Musica Viva Australia, the 2026 program spans classical, folk, jazz and genre-blurring sounds. Opening weekend sets the tone with contemporary cellist Freya Shack-Arnott, Irish-Australian artist Bonnie Stewart and double bassist Ben Ward. Across the following weeks, audiences can catch performances from internationally acclaimed guitarist Karin Schaupp, Sydney’s Enigma Quartet, and the genre-defying ensemble Elysian Fields, who close out the series. Designed as an easy (and free) winter night out, Nocturne invites you to make an evening of it. If you've got a little money to make it an occasion, grab a pre-show drink at Henry Deane or The Lord Nelson, settle in by the water as the music rolls in then fuel up nearby (Aori, A’mare and Anason are our fave restaurants in the area).Shows kick off from 6pm, making it just as suited to a post-work wind-down as it is to a low-key date night. And with Barangaroo Metro, Wynyard Station,...
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Cronulla Winter Market

  • Things to do
  • Markets
  • Cronulla
Cronulla Winter Market
Cronulla Winter Market
Photograph: Supplied
Beat the winter blues at the Cronulla Winter Market. Returning to Don Lucas Reserve on July 25 and 26, this vibrant two-day market transforms the beachfront venue into a bustling hub of shopping, food and family fun. Spend the day browsing boutique fashion, locally made art, ceramics, trinkets and treasures, with plenty of unique finds from talented makers. Feeling peckish? There’s a whole heap of gourmet food stalls, desserts and drinks to keep you fuelled as you wander around. The little ones are well catered for with rides, face painting and entertainment galore. And, if you've always been meaning to try pickleball, head over to the demonstration court hosted by The Picklr Cronulla and have a go. Whether you're searching for a one-of-a-kind gift or simply want a fun day out by the beach, the Cronulla Winter Market delivers the perfect mix of coastal charm and community spirit. Entry is free – all you need to bring is your sunny personality.  The Cronulla Winter Market is on Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26 from 9am–3pm at the Don Lucas Reserve, Cronulla. Get the details here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED: The 20 best markets in Sydney The best restaurants in Cronulla Have you done the Hungry Point Reserve Cliff Top Walk?
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